aroslav: Blog

128,000 words in July

Just because I've not been writing a lot of blog posts, doesn't mean I've not been writing! Happy to say that I finished both Seven Wonders of the World and Seven More Wonders yesterday. These fantasy adventures based on my travels around the world and across the country are now in the hands of my editors. I'm guessing I'll start posting it on SOL in mid-September. Here's the blurb.

"Based on a true story! Two things are indisputably true: 1) I took a trip around the world. 2) You thought I was having the time of your life. This is the story of what you thought I was doing while I traveled through Asia and Europe. Only the names, places, and events have been changed to protect the innocent. And to keep seven beautiful women from hunting me down to call me a liar!"

In the meantime, Not This Time continues to post every other day and readers are warming to it after the shock of discovery in the second chapter. Don't know how I could have made it more clear that it was not your typical DoOver. "But I thought you meant..." Yeah, yeah. Our assumptions are so deeply ingrained that we can't get past it. On the other hand, an unprecedented number of readers have gone back to reread the first chapter and confirm that there was nothing at all in it that indicated what sex the narrator was. Just their assumptions. Ah well. I do enjoy challenging assumptions.

So now, at long last, I am working on The Props Master Prequel: Behind the Ivory Veil. I had to reread what I'd written two years ago, so that took up my time yesterday and this morning. Now I have the original manuscript from 1985 to follow as I finish completely rewriting the story. Tension, excitement, and a little hot sex. Very little, but still... Here's the working blurb:

"In a remote area of Greece in 1954, Doc Heinrich discovers a legendary path to the City of the Gods, their abandoned home on Mount Olympus. He enlists musicologist Wesley Allen to return to the site with him and interpret the strange notations. Wesley's fiancée, Rebecca Hart, uses the opportunity to complete her thesis at the University of Edinburgh where she meets the mysterious Mrs. Weed and is initiated into the ancient Coven Carles. The dark witch, known in the coven as The Blade, dogs Rebecca's steps, attempting to find the exact location of Wesley's dig. His intent: to find and claim the mysterious goddess hidden behind the ivory veil. Myth, magic, and mayhem set up events that nearly destroy the coven and place an impenetrable veil between Rebecca and Wesley."

It's too long a description, but I'm still working on paring it down. This was the first full novel that I ever wrote, nearly forty years ago. Now it has been 'unearthed' and I'm trying to bring a slightly more mature style to it as I set up the situation that leads to The Props Master 1: Ritual Reality.

Lots of fun times to come before I start writing Yelloweye, the long-awaited sequel to Redtail and Blackfeather, in November!